Sydney's message to Lord Mayor Clover Moore - we're over your bikes - The Daily Telegraph

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Sydney's message to the Daily Telegraph: WE'RE OVER YOUR MEDIA RUBBISH — Gus Leonisky

 

Young hopscotch aficionados could become unwitting criminals under proposed new anti-graffiti laws in New South Wales.

The new legislation, which has been introduced to the NSW Parliament, makes it an offence to intentionally mark any premises or other property without the permission of the owner.

Greens MP David Shoebridge says there is no requirement in the legislation for a mark to be permanent or difficult to remove.

He says that means it will technically outlaw things like chalk hopscotch squares or handball courts drawn on footpaths or bitumen.

"Unless the kids get the consent of the local council they're committing an offence," Mr Shoebridge said.

"This Government is going to be putting on the statute books laws that make it an offence not just for kids to chalk a hopscotch court on the footpath, but for Mr Stace to have chalked "Eternity" or for a street artist to put a rainbow crossing on the road.

"This will now all become criminal activity. If children get caught by police they'll be facing a $440 fine. Now that's just nonsense."

Attorney-General Greg Smith has downplayed the impact of the new legislation, while apparently acknowledging that drawing in chalk will technically be an offence.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-19/nsw-anti-graffiti-laws-to-also-outlaw-hopscotch-squares/4967772

 

see also: http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/s3854796.htm

 

And talking of the public being relentlessly misinformed, let’s turn to another Tele story, or should we say campaign against Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore and the bike lanes she’s built in Sydney.


On your bike, Clover

— Daily Telegraph, 20th June, 2011


On your bike, Clover

— Daily Telegraph, 21st June, 2011


Sydney’s message to Clover
WE’RE OVER YOUR BIKES

— Daily Telegraph, 18th September, 2013

Last week’s Message to Clover was just the latest skirmish in the Tele’s long-running war against Sydney’s cyclists, whom the paper sees as a bunch of cappuccino-swilling trendies. 

Based on a recent travel survey, the paper reported cheerfully that:


Bicycle trips have fallen in the past decade, according to official figures which contradict claims by Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore ...

— Daily Telegraph, 18th September, 2013

Note that word contradict, which means ‘say against’ or ‘deny the truth of’, because it’s crucial. 

The Tele’s front page story went on to explain that:


The NSW Bureau of Transport Statistics 2013 household travel report found bike trips dropped 5.9 per cent across the greater city since 2001.

— Daily Telegraph, 18th September, 2013

It also observed that: 


The figures come after Ms Moore said bike trips in the centre of the city had grown by more than 110 per cent since 2010 ...

— Daily Telegraph, 18th September, 2013

So. What were we meant to make of this clash? Was Clover being accused of lying? Or at least of getting the figures wrong? 

You’d be pardoned for thinking so, especially if you looked at the Tele’s Facebook page, which baldly claimed ...


City cyclist numbers are falling ...

— Daily Telegraph Facebook Page, 18th September, 2013

And, if you listened to the shock jocks, like Chris Smith and John Laws, riffing on the Tele article you could easily have reached the same conclusion:


John Laws: Despite fewer people than ever using the bicycles to travel to work, Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore is continuing to push her pro-cyclist agenda on Sydney’s motorists – why? Why she is so crazy about – well, why is she so crazy? ...

— 2SM, John Laws Morning Show, 18th September, 2013


Chris Smith: This mad, bad plan to gouge out more bike lanes in the Sydney CBD is just plain stupid ... [EDIT] Bike trips dropped almost 6 per cent across the greater city area since 2001. So not only are these bike lanes unsuitable for our cramped traffic corridors, not only don’t commuting cyclists use them ...[EDIT] there’s now less and less demand for the damn things despite what Clover Moore wants us to think.

— 2GB, Breakfast Show with Chris Smith, 18th September, 2013

But here’s the thing. The figures from the NSW transport survey did not focus on Clover Moore’s City of Sydney.

They covered bike trips across the Sydney Greater Metropolitan Area, which stretches from south of Ulladulla almost 400 kilometres to the north of Newcastle, and 140 kilometres west to the other side of the Blue Mountains. 

The figures also involved such a small sample that the Bureau warned the results were unreliable .

And they covered two of the wettest years on record, so it would no great surprise if bike trips were down. 

In the City of Sydney where Clover has built her bike lanes, it’s a very different story, as one could have discovered down the bottom of the orginal article ... and as a much less prominent story on the Tele’s website told us later that day: 


... latest independent counts in the City of Sydney conducted across 100 intersections show the number of people riding bikes over the past three years has more than doubled. 

... on some routes, on an average weekday, as many as 2000 people are choosing to ride into the CBD. 

— Daily Telegraph Online, 18th September, 2013

So the truth is that bike lanes have increased bike traffic not reduced it. 

And Clover Moore’s claims are not contradicted at all.

Not surprisingly, some of the comments on the Tele’s Facebook page were pretty scathing. 


Matthew Whitmore: This article Is a joke. Pull your head in daily telegraph and don't pick and choose your facts to suit your headline. 

— Daily Telegraph Facebook Page, 18th September, 2013


Jonathan Bryant: I assume this article is satire?

— Daily Telegraph Facebook Page, 18th September, 2013

On Twitter, there was also a surge of outrage, with the hashtag #onyerbike trending in Sydney. 


@dailytelegraph's hysterical, biased headline article creates a dangerous climate for cyclists in Sydney. 

— Twitter, @andykquan, 18th September, 2013


Now the Murdoch press has finished trashing our Federal Government it's turning its guns on Clover & cyclists. Appalling!

— Twitter, @gazouillement99, 18th September, 2013

But in the paper itself next day, where the demographic is a little older or the comments more easily controlled, the cheer squad was out in force ...


RUDE CYCLISTS CLIP UNWARY WALKERS

Should cyclists be registered so they can be accountable for their actions?

Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

— Daily Telegraph, 19th September, 2013

It’s an old truth that the way to bond with someone is to find a common enemy. 

And that, so often, is the Tele’s MO, whipping up outrage against people or policies its readers can scorn. 

But the bike campaign has already got the Tele into trouble. Last year the Press Council ticked off the paper for letting opinions hijack its headlines. 

This time it’s the facts it’s bending. 

But the blitz continued, with stories like this on Wednesday …

This the day after ...

And this the day after that .

We understand that some of these are the subject of new Press Council complaints.

But even if the Tele is cautioned again, we suspect it will copy those cyclists and keep on running the red lights. 

Because the Tele does love a good campaign, especially when it appeals to the prejudices of its readers.

And you can find responses from the Telegraph and the Australian and more on both stories on our website. But for now that’s all from me. Goodbye.

Disclaimer:
The Media Watch team ride bikes, catch public transport, drive and walk to work.

 

From CLOVER MOORE
Three years ago I fell off my bike. It was Ride to Work Day and I fractured my ankle. Today I'll be back on my bike to join thousands of others riding to work. Fear of falling should not stop us trying new things.

When I first became lord mayor it was the ''suits'' working in the central business district who lobbied the hardest for a bike network. They wanted to skip the gym and stay fit riding to work. Businesses started installing end-of-trip facilities - showers, lockers and bike parking.

Now we're seeing other types of riders; retirees, cool young things, parents and their children on the way to school or childcare, uni students and people like me rediscovering the joy of two wheels.

We aren't wearing Lycra and we're wary of traffic, but feeling the wind on your face as you cycle to work, the shops, your local park or school is exhilarating and a terrific way to keep fit.

We're getting back on our bikes because it's slowly becoming safer to ride in Sydney and every day there's more of us doing it.

About 31,600 City of Sydney residents are on a bike every week. But riding isn't just an inner-city hobby, our bike paths are full of riders from across Sydney including North Sydney, Leichhardt, Botany Bay, Randwick, Ashfield, Ryde, Burwood, Canterbury, Rockdale and Manly.

I championed bike riding as a sensible transport option because it has many benefits. It's an affordable and reliable way to get around and it's good for your health and the environment.

Riding gives you a sense of connection to your neighbourhood you simply can't get behind the wheel of a car, or on the bus.

But many people tell us they won't ride to work because once they get near the city centre, the traffic is frightening. When asked what City of Sydney should do to encourage bike riding, more than 77 per cent of people said they wanted more and safer bike paths.

Now the NSW government has released its City Centre Access Strategy, we can complete our bike network. Riders will soon be able to enjoy a safe journey from north to south, and east to west.

Where there are separated lanes, cycling has doubled - and sometimes trebled - in just a few years. On some of our bike paths in peak hours, we have more people riding than in all the cars beside them in the traffic lane.

I am sure once more of our network is built, we'll have more people using it. In London, the biggest ever survey of bike use found cyclists accounted for 24 per cent of all traffic in central London during the morning peak. In May, New York started a bike-hire scheme. Within three days more than 20,000 people had registered.

People on bikes are people who aren't in overcrowded public transport or in cars contributing to congestion. It's a win-win.
Our challenge is to encourage good behaviour from all road users. We're all on our way somewhere and we need to look out for each other.

Clover Moore is the lord mayor of Sydney.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/cycling-to-work-is-a-win-for-everyone-20131015-2vkok.html#ixzz2hp7NkJ8O

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Gus: after the war (WWII), in most European cities that were still standing up (unlike Dresden and Berlin), cycling (and walking) was the only way around. In the late sixties, I used to go to work on my bike, beating the car traffic any day, especially on the way home since the whole trip was downhill... My uncle Roberto, the printer, was going to work on his bicycle, like many other workers, in the fifties... My father, mother, me and my brothers used to do excursions on bicycles in the late forties and fifties... It seems like yesterday... 
I still occasionally ride my bike, but it's getting a bit rusty like my knees, unfortunately...